


The Doctor is in!

by springstorms



Series: charbitch <3 [4]
Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Charbitch, Dialogue Heavy, Domestic Fluff, Drabble, Headaches & Migraines, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:54:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28363500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springstorms/pseuds/springstorms
Summary: Doc gets a migraine & Charlie comes to the rescue!
Relationships: Charlie Kelly/Scientist (It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia)
Series: charbitch <3 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2005804
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	The Doctor is in!

**Author's Note:**

> I have a longer more plot-based one about these two (featuring the rest of the gang!) in the works, I promise, but this has been in my drafts for a few weeks and I wanted to post something about these two. I've also been having the worst headaches all month which inspired this lol

Charlie woke up bent at an awkward angle on Doc's couch, knees pulled up and head tilted to the side. The kitchen smelled like coffee and he could hear the telltale morning sounds of Doc moving around opening cabinets and emptying his nice dishwasher. They were sounds tyat were starting to become just as familiar as Frank's snoring the more time he spent with Doc, and he had it stored in a mental file along with the sound of him humming as he cooked and the sound of him _tsking_ as he graded papers as sounds that immediately made him feel safe and warm inside. He didn't feel like questioning why, not even when Frank grumbled about how much time he spent with "that pasty science asshole". 

He stretched and sprung up, making his way into the kitchen. "Morning, dude." He said, opening the pantry. "Sorry for falling asleep on the couch again, did you get any sleep?"

Doc was clutching a mug of coffee like it was his lifetime, the steam curling up around his face. "Not much." 

"I'm used to sleeping on couches, Doc, you don't need to stay with me if it's affecting your own sleep so much." 

Doc blinked, fingers tightening around his mug. "If you don't _want_ me to stay with you…" 

"No, no, it's not that! You're just always all tired the next day. I don't mind you staying, you're...warm, n shit." He kicked at the ground with his scuffed sneaker. 

"Well...good." Doc said, sipping his coffee and rubbing at his jaw awkwardly. "...I've got to be at work in half an hour, but I can cook you something, if you'd like? Something more substantial than just that." He inclined his head towards the spoonful of peanut butter that Charlie was currently in the process of scooping out of the jar. 

"What's wrong with this?" Charlie held up the spoon. 

A smile tugged at his lips. "Well, it's not exactly a meal." Doc moved to open the fridge and winced at the bright fluorescent lighting, squeezing his eyes shut. "Too bright." He grumbled, reaching for the eggs.

"Are you alright?" Charlie said, moving to try and close the fridge.

"Yes, just a headache. It'll go away once I wake up." 

"You've been having a lot of headaches lately." Charlie frowned. 

Doc sighed, shutting the fridge. "I get migraines sometimes, but I don't want to burden you with it when it's usually quite manageable. It's worse when I don't sleep well." 

Charlie frowned. "Well that makes _zero_ sense. Do you wanna sit down?" 

Doc sighed again but let Charlie steer him to the couch. "Really, Charlie, it's alright." 

"It's clearly not alright, dude, you can barely open your eyes!"

Doc tried to force his eyes open but immediately flinched at the light streaming in through the window and squeezed them tightly shut again. "....Fair." 

"You literally, like, made me soup 'n shit when I had the flu last month. Nobody's done anything like that for me since my mom. Let me help you." 

Doc sighed, leaning his head back and pinching the bridge of his nose. "This is something I'm used to, though. Enough medication and I can usually push through and keep working, especially with all of the planning I've yet to do for the end of term…" 

"You've got tons of time for that stuff, dude. Oh, shit! I could totally do it _for you_!"

"Really, Charlie, that's hardly necessary." 

"I dunnooo, Doc, I'm getting pretty good at apostrophes. Plus Dennis and Dee never shut up about studying psych in college, I've probably absorbed tons of facts from them _and_ you without even trying."

Doc huffed a laugh then winced again, turning away from the window completely and fighting the urge to curl up into a ball on the couch.

"Okay, that's it." Charlie said, lowering his voice so that it wasn't too loud. "You're definitely not going in today. I'll even call them for you! I'm good at excuses." 

Doc's head was beginning to ache too much to protest so he acquiesced, opening his eyes just enough to pull up the number on his phone and hand it to Charlie. "Please, nothing too outlandish." He said, usual sternness undercut by his squinty eyes and rumbled hair. Charlie decided he liked him rumpled. 

"Pshh. Outlandish." Charlie said, only 60% certain what that word meant. He pressed the phone to his ear and closed the blinds on the window nearest to Doc before crossing the room and sliding to sit on the rug next to Schrödi, rubbing behind her ears.

"Hey, this is Charlie—yeah, he gave me his phone, I'm his, um, friend. No, he's okay, just a little under the weather. He doesn't think he'll be able to make it in today. Yeah, take your time." He covered the speaker for a moment. "This lady is pronouncing your name _so_ weird, dude." He flipped Schrödi onto her side, rubbing idly at the soft fur on her belly. 

Doc frowned, unable to help his curiosity. "How is she pronouncing it?" 

"She keeps calling you—oh! you're back!" He put the phone back up to his ear. "His symptoms? Oh, the _works._ Fever, coughing, vomiting, _so much_ diarrhea." Doc shot Charlie a look that went completely ignored. "Yeah, yeah, I guess saying 'a little under the weather' wasn't completely accurate, I'll level with you: it's not pretty....Oh, um, it's kinda a long story, actually—oh, you have time? Great! You have time!" 

Doc shot him a desperate look and Charlie held up a hand and smirked to communicate _I've got this._ "Well, it all started a few days ago when he took one of the lab rats out of his cage to test out a new maze...no, not Armitage Shanks, the other one."

Twenty minutes later and Charlie was still talking, ignoring Doc's half-hearted attempts to get him to wrap it up. "Overkill!" He whispered loudly. Charlie continued to ignore him in favor of petting Schrödi and spinning a tale of Dickensian proportion.

"—I mean, I really hate to say it, ma'am, but it's actually _your_ fault, because how could he have known that he'd get sick from one rat bite? I myself have been bitten by _thousands_ of rats in my life and I've only gotten sick, like, a handful of times, but he gets one bite from one lab rat and gets sick?"

Doc put his head in his hands and curled in on himself as Charlie's voice increased in pitch and volume, echoing throughout the room. "I'm sorry, have you never heard of the _black plague?_ He's british, it's in his DNA to be sensitive to rats!" 

He looked up at Doc and winced, mouthing _sorry_ and lowering his volume. "Yeah, well, as long as you're sorry. So he can stay home? —No, he doesn't need a doctor, he _is_ a doctor! Just a good day's rest. Maybe some soup. I'm hanging up now, bye!"

Doc peeked out from behind his fingers. "Are you quite finished?" 

"I might've been a little hard on her." Charlie mused, giving Schrödi a final scratch behind the ears before standing back up. "I told you I was good at excuses, though! You could probably swing a four day weekend and miss Monday, too, if you wanted." 

"I suppose we'll have to see how I'm faring by Monday. This rat plague I've contracted _does_ sound pretty serious." 

"Exactly." Charlie said, grabbing a water bottle and Ibuprofen from the kitchen. "Are you okay to move? Bed's more comfy than the couch."

Doc sighed but forced himself up, downing the pills and shuffling to the bedroom where Charlie was already darting around closing the blinds and fluffing the pillows. He smiled fondly, shaking his head. "Really, Charlie, you don't have to do so much."

Charlie glanced up but didn't halt his actions. "Did you or did you not buy an entire hospital worth of medical supplies the time Schrödi bit me?"

"She hadn't been vaccinated yet!" 

"Or the day I brought her here when you made me get a rabies test…"

"Again, erring on the side of caution." 

"Or when you freaked out after I tripped and skinned my knee…"

Doc pinched the bridge of his nose again. "You were trying to clean it with bleach!" 

Charlie shrugged. "Whatever, dude, just saying you deserve good treatment too." He crossed the room and reached out to fiddle with his tie. 

Doc flushed. "What—what are you doing?"

Charlie tilted his head. "You're still wearing your work clothes." 

"O-oh. Yes. I've got it, would you mind grabbing me a jumper?" 

Charlie brought Doc a UPenn sweatshirt and perched on the bed, watching his pointy shoulders become bare as he retreated to the bathroom to finish changing. British people were pretty weird about showing skin. 

Doc returned clad in sweats and crawled into bed, resisting the urge to burrow completely under the covers. He breathed out in relief as he sunk into the pillows, shutting his eyes. "Thank you, Charlie." 

"No problem, dude." Charlie said from next to him, phone in hand. "Google says something about hot and cold com…" he mouthed the syllables of the word, sounding it out. "Compreseun?" 

"Close—compression." Doc said, voice muffled by the pillow. "...and yes, sometimes ice has helped in the past. There's frozen peas in the freezer, I think." 

"I'm on it! Oh shit, sorry." Charlie dropped his voice to a whisper. "I'm on it." 

Charlie grabbed the peas and settled in next to Doc, gently placing them on his temple. Doc let out a long breath and his shoulders relaxed a little and turned over onto his back after a stretch of silence, grabbing the peas and moving them onto his forehead. "Seriously, Charlie, thank you." 

"It's not a big deal." He said, ducking his head in uncharacteristic shyness. 

He looked at Charlie with steady brown eyes. "No really, Charlie. No one's ever….I just appreciate it." 

"I like taking care of _you_ for a change. I almost get why Mac poisons Dennis like that one movie you made me watch with the dresses."

" _Phantom_ _Thread_ , and I'm sorry, did you say _poison?_ "

"Oh, just with, like, unhealthy food that he tells him is healthy. It's actually kinda fair after Dennis fed him Mexican diet pills for so long." 

"Sounds about right for those two." Doc grumbled. "...Please don't actually do the same to me." 

Charlie laughed softly. "Yeah right, dude. Even I'm more well-adjusted than that." 

Doc's eyes crinkled up. "True." 

Charlie was propped up on his side, cheek balanced on his hand. "How often do you get these?"

"Migraines?" 

"Mhm." Charlie blinked, lashes even darker than usual in the dim light. 

"It's usually at work if I don't get enough sleep with the fluorescent lighting, and everything. As I said, though, I can usually work through it." 

Charlie frowned. "I don't think you should push yourself that hard, dude." 

"Yes, well, my colleagues would disagree. Sticklers for working until you drop, the lot of them. Ironic given that it's the psychology department."

"They're all super lame." Charlie declared around a yawn, letting his head drop onto the pillow. "You should ditch em." 

"And do what?" 

"Write a book, or something. Haven't you already written one before?" 

"Well, yes…" 

"Exactly, do another then build your own lab, or something. And if that goes bust you can always work at Paddy's." 

Doc gave him a look and moved the bag from his forehead, dropping it onto a towel Charlie had left on the floor. "Somehow I don't think my particular skillet would benefit me much there." 

"I dunno, man, I think we'd benefit from having someone actually smart around." Charlie scooted lower to press his cheek against his shoulder. "Anyway, you should try to sleep this off. I'll stay here, if you want." 

"All of your napping during the day is going to rub off on me." Doc murmured, eyes already slipping shut and arm moving up to wrap around Charlie.

Charlie burrowed into his side. "Good."

**Author's Note:**

> twitter: onlybieeding


End file.
